The present invention relates generally to processes of fabricating thin film recording heads, and more particularly to a lift-off process for patterning shields in such recording heads.
Conventional thin film recording heads are processed such that magnetic alloys employed as the shields are either vacuum deposited and subsequently patterned by chemical etching or ion etching, or plated, in which case the patterns are defined with a resist mask during plating. Amorphous magnetic alloy shield materials are generally incompatible with such plating processes. In order to provide for patterning of the amorphous magnetic alloy shields, three possible alternative process types are possible. These include ion etching, chemical etching and lift-off processes.